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Thirteen people, including three children, were killed and six others injured in a new round of violence in Algeria, where civil war has raged for more than eight years, newspapers reported in Algiers Thursday.

Three women and three children were murdered Wednesday by an armed group in Hammam Righa near Ain Defla, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of the capital Algiers as they were collecting water from a fountain, several newspapers said.

The armed group also injured two children during the attack, according to the reports.

In another incident, three soldiers were killed and four others injured on Wednesday when a bomb exploded at a high school in Beni Amrane near Bourmerdes, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the capital.

Another bomb exploded, this time in Taher near Jijel, some 350 kilometers (210 miles) east of Algiers and killed a community guard on Wednesday, the daily Es Sahafa said.

The same day, a group of Islamic fundamentalists slit the throat of a shepherd who later died in Ouled Bali in the region of Mascara, some 350 kilometers (210 miles) west of the capital, Le Matin newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, two Islamists were killed in army operations in the same region.

During the crackdown, security forces seized a kalashnikov rifle, a machine gun and a dozen homemade bombs, according to Le Matin.

An estimated 60 people, including 15 Islamists, have died in violence since the beginning of September, according to a toll compiled by newspapers – ALGIERS (AFP)